Too bad, I always thought you'd be a pro at giving other people direction, too!

A dear friend of ours had horrible reflux, to the point where he would have to sit upright all night, or throw up, and it was horrible. It seemed like he couldn't eat anything. A doctor basically forced him to go gluten and dairy free (very hard for him, a picky eater!!), and after about 6 months to a year, he added both back in. He hasn't had a problem with reflux since. He doesn't even have to take any medication anymore. I hear you on making diet changes, though. It's really difficult. But it sounds like it's needed! Hugs.

ADDitude has awesome podcasts!!! Most are about ADHD but a lot have related things as well, like ADHD + reading problems, etc. I think many of them would relate to CAPD. https://www.additudemag.com/tag/podcasts/

This is so interesting, and awesome that he's starting to use that language in real life! At my last school, the middle school ELA teacher did a TON of work (like all year) on FANBOYS (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so) and AAAWWUBBIS (after, although, as, when, while, until, because, before, if, since). The latter was much harder, but both were challenging. The middle/high school kids didn't tend to use words like while, since, until, etc. in their writing. I didn't actually notice if they used it in speech - rats. I wish I could go back and observe with this in mind.

Church #1 sounds by far the best, from your description. Smaller, friendlier, language-friendly, quiet... all awesome! And you said yourself that he could probably do great there, so he'd be getting positive feedback from going there, which would lead to wanting to go more, and so on. That church with the sensory rooms, buddies, etc. sounds really overwhelming to me, and I'm a neurotypical adult! It's also so big, how can there be any community? You don't want to be anonymous. Socially, does he enjoy being around a crowd of kids? Some kids just don't need a bunch of other kids around. When I was a kid, I really didn't enjoy having a whole bunch of peers around me. I much preferred (and still do) having a few close friends. I've never been one for a party or a crowd. I think being around nice people who will talk to your DS and engage with him, in a low-stress environment, would be wonderful.

That Panther Block sounds awesome. At my last school for kids with learning disabilities, they had 2 hours of ELA each day and 1 hour of math. For most kids, having a lot more ELA was necessary, but for some kids, the opposite probably would have been better.

I'm sure that's true. He wouldn't offer to spend 20 minutes reading aloud if he wasn't getting some kind of enjoyment from it. I'd actually say he's probably enjoying it quite a bit to work for that long. Maybe he's understanding/enjoying more than he can express verbally. Lots of my students go straight to "I don't know," but when I ask them specific questions, they do have some answers, they just can't generate those answers out of thin air. They need the questions to be able to answer. Maybe that's what's going on with your DS 🙂

That is super cool! Not smoking, but still, the idea is pretty awesome 😄

Megawords book 1 is great. There are different sections, with many pages of practice for each section. The first part covers compound words (sunshine), the second does CVC/CVC (gossip, coffee), and goes on from there. You can also look up the 6 syllable types, and practice words from each type. Has he learned the rules where to divide syllables, about open and closed syllables, etc? For example, in a CVC/CVC word (ex., gossip), you divide between the two consonants. In a word like mo/tel, you can't divide between two consonants, so you have to choose where to split it - either mot/el, or mo/tel. There are the kind of things he'd learn in Megawords. I use this multi-syllable word list all the time. It's great: http://readskill.com/Resources/SkillResourceLists/pdf/RM_Syllabication.pdf Also, practicing common prefixes and suffixes helps, too. I like to write words on index cards and cut them into syllables, and have kids try to unscramble them into a real word. You can then discuss whether a syllable is open or closed, if the vowel sound is long or short, which syllable is a suffix, etc. Plus, it's a "game." Multi-syllable words are going to be really challenging for him if he's not really clear on long and short vowel sounds. My dyslexic students find this very challenging.

I didn't mean to sound like a curmudgeon earlier - just that I hate not having the time to adequately research what can work for a child, yet be expected to help the child make progress. And I don't want a little bit of progress, I want a whole lot, ya know?

I'm not 100% sure on where the breakdown for him is yet - it's either the language holding him back, or the ADHD making sustained attention on reading difficult, or, most likely, both. He's a super, fun, amazing kid, and with a big range of strengths and weaknesses.

Definitely. The experience is the key.

This WOULD be brilliant! I mean, reading is complicated and all, but it's way less complicated (in my mind, anyway) than ALL OF LANGUAGE. Whoa. Yay! It's cool that you get to see all of the pieces build and fit together. I'm off to read! Well, after some kids. But then reading 😄

Thank you SO MUCH for all of your thoughts. I'm going to have to take some time to digest what you said about testing above. I agree with you about the CELF. It told us, oh, he has trouble remembering directions that are more than a sentence long, but it DIDN'T tell us what to do to address that deficit. And so on. I wish I was either an SLP or just really, really informed about what to target based on testing. I'm technically decently educated, (master's in special education) yet I'm at sea here! It's frustrating. I know I CAN do well if I know which tools to use, but do I need a doctorate? Also frustrating is that I could spend all of my evenings and weekends reading articles, researching, etc., but should that really be necessary on a schoolteacher's salary? I want that $100-$400 an hour! Lol. Just whining here. I don't like wasting people's time with things that "might" be good. Like, we're going to do Visualizing and Verbalizing. I KNOW that's a god one. But when a kid is staring middle school in the face, time is short, you know?

We have some testing, but mostly the tests show that the problem exists, not why the problem is there. What kind of tests are done for syntax, etc? Severe ADHD is also in the mix. I never knew how miserable ADHD could be until I went to public school. In the school for learning disabilities, everyone had similar issues, so everyone was accommodated. Seeing that kind of kid try to function in a regular classroom is painful to watch. FFW has a 2 month free trial, so I'll report back what I see on there. Thank you for the videos!!

Sorry, I missed your post. I'm already a huge fan of LiPS. It's the best! I just love it. This kid's particular problem isn't phonemic awareness, though, in fact his is pretty stellar. It's listening, following directions, executive functioning, etc. I love LiPS with my dyslexic students.

I hear you. I do this, too.

If this is the case, then having audio won't really improve anything. I think you're on a great track with working to improve his understanding of language, and his willingness to read has certainly skyrocketed! That is awesome 🙂 If I were you, I'd just continue on with what seems to be working well already. 🙂

Well, just because there isn't evidence of it helping YET, it's probably not being studied yet. It may or may not help your particular child. It's worth a go, if you have time and he's willing. 🙂

I've never heard about immersion reading except for on this forum. I've never successfully gotten a kid to follow along on a book (or Raz-Kids) while listening to the audio. Curious about the goal of immersion reading.

Neat! There is a LOT in there. I love using picture books to teach writing... thanks for the reminder. I haven't been doing it a lot lately.

Nicely put 🙂

This was just one psychologist, so I'm sure other people's categories are different. I wonder if this particular psych would categorize your kids' reading difficulties as dyslexia (phonological), compounded by a rapid naming deficit. How are things going, with reading/writing by the way?

Thank you so much, that's an extremely kind offer! Too bad we can't get graduate credit from our personal research.

Well, I want you to try Mightier, so you can report back! After the month free trial, it's a $100 flat fee plus $19 for each additional month. Plus, it's video games... so it's probably very attractive to an ADHD child. You might not even have to explain what it's for - if she gets defensive about talking about feelings - you could just say, here's a fun new game! Personally, I think the whole things sounds fun - the video games, the wristband you get to wear, all of it.